Poinsettia empire is Fallbrook-grown

Company sees bright future for red holiday plant

Jerry Halamuda (above), owner of Fallbrook-based Color Spot Nurseries, started in agriculture at 17, picking tomatoes in the South Bay. Today his company is recognized by many as the largest poinsettia producer and wholesale nursery products grower in the United States. Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle.

Jerry Halamuda (above), owner of Fallbrook-based Color Spot Nurseries, started in agriculture at 17, picking tomatoes in the South Bay. Today his company is recognized by many as the largest poinsettia producer and wholesale nursery products grower in the United States. Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle.

FALLBROOK  Jerry Halamuda has grown everything from poinsettias to pumpkins in San Diego County during the past three decades as owner of Color Spot Nurseries.

But you won’t find the 63-year-old businessman chumming it up at local farm-industry meetings or barbecues. You’re more likely to find him on the phone selling thousands of plants at a time to Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart, expanding his Fallbrook-based nursery empire one mega sale at a time.

Industry experts consider Color Spot — with its 4,000 employees and 20 million square feet of greenhouses across California, Oregon, Arizona and Texas — one of the largest poinsettia producers and wholesale nurseries in the United States. Some have it listed at the top.

Color Spot may very well be the poinsettia and nursery king, as Halamuda declares, but it’s difficult to determine exactly who holds the title in each category because most growers keep their financial data private.

“Clearly, they are very big. That’s indisputable,” said Paul Ecke III, whose family revolutionized the sale and breeding of poinsettias at their Encinitas-based Paul Ecke Ranch. Before selling their business last year, the Eckes had provided poinsettia cuttings to Color Spot for decades.

Halamuda said his business generates more than $300 million in overall sales each year. It ships annuals, perennials, bulbs, ornamentals, ground cover, vegetables and herbs from more than a dozen production sites nationally.

Seas of red, yellow, pink and white poinsettias keep Color Spot busy during the holidays. The company will cultivate more than 5 million poinsettia plants this year, selling about 25 genetic varieties to pharmacy, big-box, department and grocery store chains across the country, its owner said.

While the demands of the job are numerous, Halamuda said he still takes time to enjoy the beauty of his occupation.

“You can’t help but look at this and say ‘Oh, my God,’” Halamuda said on a recent afternoon, pulling up in his SUV next to a greenhouse packed wall-to-wall with red poinsettias. “This still takes my breath away.”

Growth strategy

Color Spot didn’t get so large by accident.

The company’s goal all along, Halamuda said, was to expand its product base and geographic presence. That growth has helped Color Spot remain a top seller to national chains, which sometimes prefer to use the same supplier across multiple market territories.

Color Spot is not, however, the only big nursery and poinsettia grower in San Diego County.

Altman Plants of Vista is ranked fourth on the 2013 Greenhouse Grower Top 100 Growers list, an industry publication’s measure based on square footage of greenhouses. (Color Spot occupied the No. 1 position.)

Altman will produce more than 1 million poinsettias this year, said owner Ken Altman.

Looking back, Halamuda said much of the credit for Color Spot’s success goes to Michael Vukelich, who cofounded the company with Halamuda in 1981. Vukelich, whom Halamuda described as his best friend, died of cancer two years ago.

“If you really do your best to focus on quality and customer service, all of a sudden an interesting phenomenon takes place: you grow,” said Halamuda.